Radiohead Stage Collapse Case Hits Standstill

Radiohead pay tribute to Scott Johnson at July 10, 2012 show in Nîmes, France, photo by Tiffany Bowen

In 2012, drum technician Scott Johnson was killed in a stage collapse that occurred prior to a planned Radiohead concert in Toronto. The next year, Ontario’s Ministry of Labour brought charges against Live Nation, scaffolding company Optex Staging and Services, and engineer Domenic Cugliari under the province’s Occupational Health and Safety Act. Now, after years of hearings and delays, an Ontario court judge has stayed the charges against Live Nation, Optex, and Cugliari, the CBC reports. This means the charges are no longer going forward, though they could technically be revived within one year. The judge, Ann Nelson, ruled that the case’s many delays had caused it to take too long to come to trial, violating the trial time limits that were instituted by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2016.

“It is important to emphasize that timely justice is not just important to persons facing charges... It is also important to our society at large,” Nelson said in her ruling, according to The Globe and Mail. She continued, “No doubt, this decision will be incomprehensible to Mr. Johnson’s family, who can justifiably complain that justice has not been done.” According to The Globe and Mail, even Live Nation’s lawyer called the ruling “brutal” for Johnson’s family.

Ann Nelson was not the first judge assigned to the stage collapse case. Until earlier this year, Shaun Nakatsuru presided, but he was forced to give up his role when he was appointed to the Ontario Superior Court, meaning he was no longer held jurisdiction in the provincial court. This is notable because, in October 2016, Nakatsuru denied a bid from Live Nation to throw out the case. At the time, Live Nation cited the same Supreme Court ruling that led to today’s stayed charges.

In 2013, Live Nation denied all wrongdoing in the death of Johnson, saying, “We absolutely maintain that Live Nation and our employees did everything possible to ensure the safety of anyone who was on or near the stage involved in the tragic incident that led to the unfortunate death of Mr. Scott Johnson.”